Sunday, January 23, 2011

True Friends Stick Like Super Glue

"Kahit maputi na ang buhok ko..." so goes the song. I was listening to some oldies as I was enjoying again my past and one thing really struck me. You guessed it right,

True Friends Stick Like Super Glue

I had the experience of dealing with fingers stuck together with some super glue, the skin so strongly pasted together you might literally tear yourself apart if you force it. Such are friends who really care. No matter what the circumstances, they stick on and hold on. Even when your hair turns grey.

I have excellent examples of friends who never left me and excellent examples of people who you thought were friends leave you behind or abandon you. Not entering into bittersweet melancholy mode, we all have our share of good friends and fake friends. So, beware, both of the danger of fake friends and of the danger of being the fake friend.

Since we are approaching the big day of our Father and Teacher, St John Bosco, let me connect this with the saints. The halls of sanctity is also marked with pairs and pairs of really good and loyal friends. As they say, you don't get to be a saint alone, you bring others with you.  For a short and interesting list, here you go:

St John Bosco and his good friend Louis Comollo. 
Bl. Augustus Czartoryski and Ven. Andrew Beltrami. 
St. Francis of Sales and St. Jane Frances de Chantal. 
St. Francis of Assisi and St. Claire.
and there was Jesus and Lazarus.

From humanity to sanctity, we need friends whom we can depend on. We need friends who can accept us for who we are and love us just the way we are. We need friends who can push us to change for the better. We need friends who we can grow together with. Friends are gifts from God. We need to take care of them. So take care of your friends who have always stuck up with you through thick and thin. Find and thank those who have been silently supporting you in the dim background. Beware of those who wear masks who could easily betray and abandon you, people who really don't value you.

As a note, I'd like to thank all my friends out there, who have been always a source of inspiration for me. Once you touch my life, your print stays forever.

Beyond

I wish to go beyond, to faraway
Somewhere far, farther than today
Beyond the small confines of my fears
Above the grey clouds of my saline tears
To where I can soar towards the golden sun
Where I won't have to hide or run

I wish to go beyond, somewhere
Fields of green and life to share
With those I love and closely keep
Near my heart and then gently sleep
In night's embrace and day's caress
In deep slumber of sweet peacefulness

I wish to go beyond, sometime
Where time stands still in my solitary mind
Each moment is all mine to seize
Wishes and dreams for my hand to reach
Far beyond, and farther still
Until nothing is but love to feel

If You Will It

Cast out from the mainstream light
Into the unknown, quandary night
No more now as I was then before
Scarred and chipped, disfigured sore

Heard then I from a distant shout
Walls that kept me once but out
That hope has come to take me in
Back to what my home has been

I willed it not, none will let me in
Hearts afraid of this fearful thing
Who once before was among many
Kins and friends of my past story

So if you will it, Lord, come take me in
Restore, renew, remake me clean
For none more painful than be away
From those you love from distant day

Will it, Lord, please make me whole
Only in you is my heart's console
I dare not touch, but I dare to plea
Before these people's cold apathy

Not in disguise I have come to ask
With nakedness in light I bask
For me to see my own misery
And beg you, Lord, take away from me

If you will it only, Lord, I cry
I bow to ask salvation nigh
O, look with pity on this sorry man
Lift him up, please, if you just can

I will it, yes, you said to me
I will it so wholeheartedly
In faith you came, more faith you go
Tell none, so that no one may know

How love has come to take your pain
And stripped you off your pride and vain
To clothe you in new man's dignity
And be assured you are loved by me

***


This poem has been inspired by the Gospel episode where a leper asked Jesus to heal him, saying "If you will it, Lord..."